When central nerve tissue such as the brain or spinal cord is injured, the higher function controlled by the injured nerves is impaired. The number of patients with stroke, which is a typical example of nerve injury, is as high as about 1,300,000 in Japan, which leads to a serious social loss.
When nerve injury such as stroke or spinal cord injury has occurred, rehabilitation for the purpose of recovering from functional disorders is recommended. However, the effect of recovery from the functional disorders obtained with rehabilitation is insufficient, and many cases have been reported where the disorders remain, or returning to society is not possible, even after rehabilitation. The effect of recovery from functional disorders obtained with conventional rehabilitation is therefore limited (Non Patent Documents 1 and 2).
The alkyl ether derivatives described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 have been known thus far to have neuroprotection action, neuroregeneration action, neurite outgrowth-promoting action, and neurogenesis-inducing action (Patent Documents 1 and 2).